The largest photovoltaic archipelago in the world

The largest photovoltaic archipelago in the world

The largest photovoltaic archipelago in the world will  born in the Netherlands.

15 islands made of floating photovoltaic panels will supply electricity to thousands of families in the Netherlands.

Dutch engineers are building

Dutch engineers are building what will be the largest archipelago of islands in the world consisting of floating solar panels. The growing resistance to the construction of wind farms and ground-based photovoltaic systems has led the renewable energy industry to seek alternative options. Plants with floating solar panels are under construction, or already installed, in artificial basins and in lakes of the Netherlands, China, United Kingdom and Japan.

 Netherlands, record-breaking floating photovoltaics

In the Netherlands the construction of the work, which will become the largest of its kind in the world, will begin in the coming months with 15 solar islands in the Andijk basin in the northern Netherlands. The islands, formed by 73,500 panels, are oriented during the day according to the position of the sun.

Involves the construction of three island 

The first phase of the project, which involves the construction of three islands, each of which will have a diameter of 140 meters, should be completed by November, once the migratory season for birds has ended.

 The construction of the work Started, but due to the migratory seasons of the birds we only have a window of three months in which we can put the solar islands into the water," said Arnoud van Druten, CEO of Floating Solar, supplier of floating solar panels.

 Second Project

Together with a second project located in Hoofddorp, near Amsterdam, which will use fixed solar panels, they will be able to produce enough energy to meet the energy demand of 10 thousand families

A photovoltaic archipelago that will be able to supply 10,000 homes with energy. This is the ambitious project conceived by Floating Solar, a Dutch company that, on the sea of ​​a famous nature reserve, will give rise to fifteen round islands made up of thousands of solar panels.

 MOVE TOGETHER WITH THE SUN

The project consists in the creation of the largest and most innovative photovoltaic archipelago in the world, which will be built on the sea of ​​the Andijk nature reserve in northern Holland. It will consist of fifteen round islets (140 meters in diameter), each of which will have 5 thousand solar panels inside. These islands will be able to move according to the movements of the sun, so as to capture 30% of the sun's rays more than fixed installations on the ground. In short, the Floating Solar will rotate like a sunflower. This will happen because each islet, by means of a cable, will be connected to three anchorage buoys that will tilt according to the time of day.

Maximum productivity with the panels always facing the sun

The solar tracking system provides three buoys for anchoring the panels with a cable that holds them together and ensures that the island is always facing the sun with an orientation system set automatically thanks to an algorithm that provides the position of the sun for the next few years, this will increase production by 30 percent.

Designed to withstand extreme conditions.

The photovoltaic islands have been designed to change their structure to be able to minimize damage

In the case of extreme weather phenomena, the photovoltaic islands have been designed to change their structure to be able to minimize damage.

Since Andijk has a rather harsh climate, the plant is equipped with a monitoring system for the management of meteorological risk: if an island is subjected to strong pressure due to wind or storms it automatically orientates itself to reduce the impact of the wind or waves. "We have already tested that the system can support, without WRM, wind speeds of around 120 kilometers per hour (storm)," said van Druten.

Minimal impact on the environment

To avoid damaging the ecosystems of the water basin, the photovoltaic islands will occupy only half of the surface of the water surface. The design was done in such a way as to create the minimum impact on the ecosystem and maintain the quality of the water. Furthermore, since the island is in motion, a fixed shadow form is not created and this allows to safeguard the balance of the aquatic flora.